Digital Literacy in a 2.0 World

social bookmarking teaching technology MySpace ﬂickr Digital Literacy in a 2.0 World Del.icio.us DOPA wikipedia By: Kyle Jones (‘07) Facebook Elmhurst College curriculum Furl education wikis Communication Web 2.0 blogs instruction tagging Blogger adapting Socialization

Copyright • This presentation is published under the Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial 3.0 license. • All that I ask is that, if you use any piece of this presentation, attribute it as such: Created by Kyle Jones of Elmhurst Co!ege (2007) • Other than that, enjoy and thanks for viewing!

Presentation outline... 1. Deﬁning literacy and digital literacy 1. Pew ﬁndings about students internet use 2. Why we are refocusing on digital literacy 1. Web 2.0 3. Tools to meet digital literacy needs 1. Wikis 2. Blogs 3. RSS feeds

As we move along please... • Interrupt and ask questions - lots of them • Pose the tough questions • Play devil’s advocate • Ask yourself these questions: • How might “this” work or not work? Why? • How might “this” beneﬁt my students? • How might “this” add to my instruction?

What is literacy? • What do we consider to be the main characteristics of literacy? • How do students obtain these skills?

Then, what is digital literacy? • What are its deﬁning characteristics? • How do they diﬀer from the traditional views of literacy?

But aren’t our students already tech-savvy?

Tech savvy versus digitally literate • We need to reconsider our wording, our deﬁnitions. • What’s the diﬀerence here?

Students and Internet usage according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project

Of 754 students aged 12-17... • 94% used the Internet for research (3) • 78% believe the Internet helps them do their schoolwork. (3) • A July 2002 Pew survey showed that three in ﬁve (60%) children under the age of 18 go online - 78% of twelve to seventeen year olds also had been online (2)

What students say about the Internet... (2) • “I’m constantly amazed at the vast resources that are available on virtually any topic...Practically every area of my life has been impacted by my experiences on the Web. The Internet has been a gift to my life.” • “I think the reason that we use the Internet so well and that we know so many things about it is because when it happened, we were there.” [emphasis mine] • “I still use books, but combining them with the information found online is what makes them valuable...once textbooks are printed the information in them becomes increasingly more stagnant, whereas, with the always lively and ever-changing Internet, recent discoveries in any academic topic are made readily available.” • “We learn so much from just one click of the mouse.”

What students say about Internet use at school... (2) • “Well, I never had a teacher that assigned an assignment that was based completely on the Internet.” • “I never really got an assignment that speciﬁcally said you have to use the Internet.” • “...sometimes teachers just want you to use the Internet because its the Internet.” • “Our teachers usually... don’t really know what to do with it.”

When Internet assignments have a meaningful purpose and are engaging they are successful. (3) • “Some really interesting ways that we use the Internet in school is for fun stuﬀ like scavenger hunts, which have been done on the Olympics, poets, and famous ﬁgures. We have also made Web pages... which were centered around our interests and what we are like in character.”

Students know the barriers of using the Internet... (2) • “With all these beneﬁts to the Internet, there are downfalls as well...there are websites that have to be restricted and monitored...However, just like everything else, people have to be responsible, and in doing this, a lot of good can come.” • A lot of time when you use the Internet at school, you’ll get on a site - even for educational purposes - and you’ll be blocked.” • “They [teachers] don’t assign Internet usage because some kids don’t have the Internet or have computers, so we do most of it in the lab.”

Implications (2) • “Students themselves are changing because of their use of and reliance on the Internet. They are coming to school with different expectations, different skills, and different resources. In fact, our most Internet-savvy students told us that their schools, teachers and peers are at times frustratingly illiterate, naive, and even afraid of the online world....Many schools have yet to react or even to recognize the changes in the ways that Internet-savvy students communicate and access information.”

What if we don’t adapt? • “If students are prepared only for the foundational literacies of book, paper, and pencil technologies, they will be unprepared for a future in which the new literacies are required by new information and communication technologies.” (1, Karchmer et al. pg. 1)

What is the reason for a new or revised focus on digital literacy?

The changing digital environment • Technology has shifted from the personal experience to the community experience. • Our students (and, I’d argue, we) want to share our lives, our knowledge, our experiences. • This is a societal shift, not a niche phenomenon.

A YouTube explanation... • In the following slide we’ll be watching a movie. • It goes quick, but it says a lot about the way we now experience the internet.

KSU Digital Ethnography Web 2.0 - The Machine is Us/ing Us

Web 2.o at a glimpse • Communication and collaboration via: • audio (podcasts) • video (YouTube) • text (blogs, wikis) • folksonomies (tagging @ amazon.com, del.icio.us) • Subscription content (RSS) • Aesthetics and experience • How does it look? • Did you enjoy your time at the site? Web 2.0 deﬁnition idea created based on personal ideas and this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web20

Web 2.0 examples: Podcasts Chicago Public Radio’s “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me”

Web 2.0 examples: Video (YouTube) Made by students at Wilmington High School

Web 2.0 examples: Text (blogs and wikis)

Web 2.0 examples: Folksonomies (amazon.com, del.icio.us)

Web 2.0 examples: Subscription content (RSS)

Wikis

Wikis for teachers: What you need to know... • A wiki is a collaborative web page. • Anyone can access the page and make changes to the content (it can be password protected). • If you are looking to create an online learning experience that supports your social constructivist teaching philosophy, look no further. • Wikis require no coding (HTML/CSS) knowledge and are generally as simple to use as Microsoft Word. • Wikis are 99% of the time web-based and free (you don’t have to download or install anything - just sign up)

Examples of wikis... • Wikipedia.org • “There are over 75,000 active contributors working on more than 5,300,000 articles in more than 100 languages.” (from wikipedia.org) • Flatclassroomproject.wikispaces.com • A school in Bangladesh and another in Georgia collaborated on a book discussion of The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman.

Wikis for students: What it means... • Much like group work, students actively create knowledge as a team. • Students are held even more responsible for what they submit to the wiki due to the transparent nature of wikis (you know when and what a student posts). • Students will keep each other honest - if someone submits wrong information, they’ll correct each other. • Students can not only add text to the wiki but also multimedia like videos, audio, and photography - this creates a more comprehensive experience.

How you might implement wikis... • Virtual literature circles. • Have a class scribe for the week that takes lecture notes and adds them to the wiki. • Like the “ﬂatclassroomproject,” collaborate with a neighboring school. • Any other ideas?

Blogs

The power of the blog... • I would argue one of the best technological creations. • Instant publication • Collaboration • A fun and engaging way to write

How society uses blogs... • Politics • Personal journals • News • Professional reﬂection (my blog) • Any others?

Blogs for teachers: What you need to know... • A blog is more of a personal exercise where an author writes and publishes (posts) what he or she has written. • Only the author can edit the original post, but anyone can read it and, better yet, comment on what has been written; this creates an asynchronous dialogue. • If you want your students to write for a real, authentic audience, blogging will do that because it is open for the world to see. • Like wikis, blogs require no coding (HTML/CSS) knowledge and are generally as simple to use as Microsoft Word. • Again like wikis, blogs are 99% of the time web-based and free (you don’t have to download or install anything - just sign up)

Examples of blogs... • thecorkboard.org/blog • My professional blog where I generally reﬂect on education, student teaching, and the use of instructional technology. • davidwarlick.com/2cents • David speaks around the country and world about digital literacy and related topics.

Blogs for students: What it means... • Students write for a real, authentic audience. • Although the purpose is diﬀerent, students will most likely already be comfortable with writing in this type of mode (think LiveJournal, except academic). • Students will be able to read and respond to their peers ideas and thoughts. • Students would include hyperlinks and images to add another dimension to their writing that wouldn’t be accessible when implementing the typical pen and paper writing assignment.

How you might implement blogs... • Response writing to: • literature • current events • Create an online writing portfolio (poetry, short ﬁction, essays...) • Almost anything that involves writing. • Any other ideas?

RSS Feeds

RSS for teachers • We’re way to busy during the school year to know the mumbo jumbo and the technicality of “this” does “that.” • We need the basics and we need it to work for us. • Luckily for us, RSS is simple. • It’s even in the acronym: Really Simple Syndication

RSS basic need-to-know... These are all basically Atom the same and XML they do the same thing. 1. Click on the icon 2. Copy the URL (link like www.soonandsoforth.com) 3. Paste the link into an aggregator (big word, don’t fear it)

How RSS works... • Think of your magazine and newspaper subscriptions. • How do those work? Chicago, IL The Tribune Your house

Now, how it rea!y works... • An RSS feed is like the Tribune. • You subscribe to one or, probably, many. • Those subscriptions come to you without doing a single thing once you’ve subscribed. Tribune Wiki #1 NY Times Co!ege news Employment Washington Opportunities Post Your computer* in one click Blog #2 NPR Blog #1 ESPN *= aggregator graphic idea credit: Jenny Levine (http://theshiftedlibrarian.com/presentations/2006/20060913SC.pdf)

And this is diﬀerent from what I do now? • Currently, if you don’t use RSS feeds, you go to every site - one by one. NY Times Tribune Your computer in 10 clicks Co!ege news Wiki #1 Washington Employment NPR Post Opportunities Blog #1 ESPN Blog #2 graphic idea credit: Jenny Levine (http://theshiftedlibrarian.com/presentations/2006/20060913SC.pdf)

WAIT - what’s an aggregator? • Remember how the “house” was the end destination for your Tribune subscription? • An aggregator is the end destination for your RSS feed subscriptions. • Some notable aggregators are Bloglines.com and Google.com/reader.

Let’s look at Google Reader Add a new subscription An RSS feed that has new items A folder of RSS feeds with new items

Adding a subscription... 1- Click here 2- This box opens up 3- Paste in your feed and click “add” You’ve done it! Now you can add it to a folder if you so desire!

• Here we are viewing a folder in list view.

Any questions about aggregators?

Cool Kyle, we get it. But isn’t this the “tech-for-tech’s sake” idea you said not to fall into? Yes...and no.

A little clariﬁcation... • It is tech-for-tech’s sake when you are using it to... • Keep track of 60 student blogs. • Do personal reading.

It’s digital literacy when... • you teach your students how to use RSS feeds to keep up with current events. • you teach your students to use RSS feeds eﬀectively and eﬃciently to communicate when doing group projects online. • wikis • individual/group blogs

In conclusion... • It’s time to revisit, rethink, and revise how technology is implemented in the classroom.

References (1) Karchmer, R. A., Mallette, M. H., Kara-Soteriou, J., & Leu, D. J. (Eds.). (2005). Innovative Approaches to Literacy Education: Using the Internet to Support New Literacies. Newark: International Reading Association. (2) Levin, D., & Arajef S. (2002). The Digital Disconnect. Retrieved February 1, 2007, from http://www.pewinternet.org/report_display.asp?r=67. (3) Lenhart, A., Simon, M., & Graziano, M. (2001). The Internet and Education. Retrieved February 1, 2007, from http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/39/ report_display.asp.

Digital Literacy in a 2.0 World

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